Pro-Russia rebels in eastern Ukraine reportedly prepare last stand in Donetsk
July 6, 2014: People listen to a pro-Russian activist during a pro-Russian meeting in the city of Donetsk, eastern Ukraine. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)
Pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine have retreated to the last major city under their control after a series of successes by the Ukrainian army earlier this week.
The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that the Ukrainian government had vowed to lay siege to the city of Donetsk in an effort to pursue rebels who have fled there from the crucial city of Slovyansk, which was recaptured by government forces over the weekend.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Ukraine Defense Minister Valeriy Heletey told reporters that government forces had destroyed a large column of armored vehicles and killed dozens of rebels as they fled Slovyansk on Saturday. He vowed that the army would “continue the active phase until the moment when on the territory of Donetsk and Luhansk region there is not a single terrorist left.”
The Journal also reported that rebels had abandoned the town of Kramatorsk, just south of Slovyansk, while the BBC reported that the cities of Artyomivsk and Druzhkivka had also been retaken by Ukrainian forces in another sign of the army’s increased traction in the east.
The rebels’ so-called “tactical retreat” to Donetsk has been met with near-silence from the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Moscow has been accused by Kyiv and Washington of fomenting the rebellion in the east as part of an attempt to undermine Ukraine’s pro-European government, which came to power after the overthrow of pro-Russia president Viktor Yanukovych this past February.
Putin’s government has denied Western accusations that it has provided the rebels with troops and weapons, including tanks and rocket launchers. At a rally in Donetsk Sunday, the defiant rebels vowed to continue their fight and called on Moscow to come to their aid.
Putin has so far resisted demands at home and by the rebels to come to their aid, wary of having more Western sanctions slapped on Russia.
“I’m very disappointed,” Fedor Berezin, rebel deputy defense minister, told the Journal when asked for his reaction to Moscow’s lack of aid. “That means it will be a long and bloody war until we all die valiantly on the barricades.”
Pavel Gubarev, the self-described governor of the Donetsk People’s Republic, told the crowd that the insurgents could easily die in Donetsk if Russia did not do more to help them. Gubarev said rebels were forced to flee Slovyansk because several commanders had betrayed Girkin and left his forces there vulnerable to attack.
“We will begin a real partisan war around the whole perimeter of Donetsk,” Gubarev promised in his address. “We will drown these wretches in blood.”
Despite the bravado in the city, the mood was dire Sunday at a rebel checkpoint on the outskirts of Donetsk.
“We will fight to the end because we have nowhere left to retreat,” a 32-year-old former coal miner who would give only his first name, Artyom, due to fears of retaliation told The Associated Press “I don’t want to fall into the hands of the Ukrainian authorities.”
Despite the recent and rapid battlefield successes for Kyiv’s forces, Donetsk “will be a tougher nut to crack” for government forces for several reasons, Mark Galeotti, a security expert at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs told The Associated Press.
With a population of almost 1 million, Donetsk is larger and has a greater concentration of rebel defenders. On top of that, Ukrainian forces may try to avoid using aircraft and artillery, their chief military advantages, in the city because of the damage and civilian casualties they can cause.
If government forces try to take Donetsk by street-to-street fighting “that is playing to the insurgents’ strengths … When it comes to close-quarters combat, on the whole, the insurgents have proved more effective than most of Kyiv’s forces,” Galeotti said.
Much also depends on whether Poroshenko presses the attack or eases off in hopes of a negotiated solution to the unrest. He began his presidency on June 7 by outlining a peace plan and then declaring a cease-fire, but he is under public pressure to defeat the rebels.
Nina Yakovleva, a 45-year-old accountant and resident of Donetsk, said she expected nothing good to come of the convergence of rebels in the city.
“We are afraid that Donetsk will be left in ruins, like Slovyansk,” she said. “The rebels have brought us war and fear.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.